Burlington city councilors are criticizing Kyle Dodson, who served as the city’s director of police transformation for the past six months, for producing a final report that was significantly plagiarized.
A Friday afternoon report by Seven Days found that Dodson had not properly attributed various portions of the report. Some passages were lifted verbatim from other sources. The news organization found that half of the 1,542 words in the document that Dodson provided the mayor were not his own.
The finding comes after many councilors were already criticizing the eight-page report for lacking substance and for not providing specific recommendations for reform within the Burlington Police Department
Dodson was appointed to the role of police transformation in September by Mayor Miro Weinberger following a summer defined by protests against the Burlington Police Department for alleged violent use of force. Dodson took a leave of absence from his position as president of the Burlington YMCA to take on the role. He has previously served as a Burlington school commissioner, a school principal and as director of Champlain College’s Center for Service and Civic Engagement.
He completed his police transformation tenure March 19, and gave the mayor the report, which had not been disclosed to the public. It had been shared with the City Council and the citizen oversight Police Commission.
In a phone interview with VTDigger Friday evening, Dodson said he should have pushed back on having to write a final report. He said he thought that a reflection wouldn’t be able to capture the complexity of police transformation and would get lost in the political divisions of the city. He said this ambivalence, and his perception that this report would not be shared with wider audiences in the city, led to his providing insufficient attribution.
“I viewed it more as a memo to the mayor,” he said. “I didn’t think he would expect that I was giving this to him and saying this is Kyle’s work, taking credit. The plagiarism really only matters if I wanted credit for it. I don’t want the credit. Really, at this point, I don’t even want the work.”
Dodson said it’s unrealistic to expect one person to transform policing in a matter of six months.
“I had no police experience, everyone knew that. I didn’t present myself as a police transformer,” Dodson said. “So in a nation where every day, people who have studied their whole lives are doing this work, and we’re still where we are, why was I expected to have the silver bullet?”
In a statement issued by Weinberger’s office, the mayor said he was disappointed to learn about Dodson’s plagiarized work.
“It is critical that City employees follow professional standards regarding citations and sourcing so that our work can be evaluated and judged, and so that innovations and ideas are properly credited,” he wrote.
“I also must make it clear that Kyle is no longer working for the City and is not speaking for me with his reported criticism of ‘Blacks and activists,’” he added. “I approach these conversations with an open-mind, hope and optimism for consensus, and a commitment on principle to the belief that everyone involved in these very challenging debates is seeking to create progress and a better community.”
Weinberger is referring to a statement from Dodson, as quoted by Seven Days, in which he says, “The community didn’t want transformation. Blacks and activists want revenge. That’s understandable, but it’s deeply problematic.”
Weinberger said Dodson did more in his role than just write a report. Over the past six months, he said Dodson helped the administration with policing issues, organized conversation between BIPOC community members and police, and “positively” impacted the BPD’s culture. He said the report is in “no way a full summary” of the work the city has ahead of itself to address police reform.
Dodson had lifted almost entire passages from articles and web pages discussing issues of police reform. On one website, LawfareBlog.com, authors Ava J. Abramowitz and Catherine Milton write, “It is the question today, and it has to be debated precinct-by-precinct and resolved department-by-department. It is not an issue to be determined by citizens alone. Police need to speak up. They have knowledge that all of society needs to learn.”
Dodson only changes a few words of this passage that is included in his report, without attribution.
“It is the question that Burlington faces and it has to be debated neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and resolved street-by-street,” he wrote. “It is not an issue to be determined by citizens alone. Police need to speak up. They have knowledge that all of us have to learn.”
Another sentence from the same article, “division serves to immobilize, as it increases both anger and hurt of all involved, citizens and police officers alike,” appears verbatim in Dodson’s report without attribution.
While Dodson had provided links to resources, like Georgetown Law School and the City of Cambridge’s website, it is unclear that the passages are originally from these sources and not Dodson’s own writing.
Before the plagiarism incident, city officials were already expressing disappointment that the report lacked substance and appeared biased toward police. It has three sections that delved into police training, dialogues and evaluation, none of which provided specific proposals for reform in Burlington’s Police Department.
When reached earlier this week before the report was acquired by VTDigger, Dodson said he found there is profound mistrust between police and residents of color in Burlington, which has been informed by a history of systemic racism.
He said he doesn’t view himself as an apologist for the police, but he also found that cops are not open to reform efforts because they feel like they’re being attacked. He said real change won’t happen if there’s no buy-in from police.
“The question for me is, do we want police officers to grow and change?” Dodson said, “or do we just want to tell them they’re horrible?”
Police Commissioner Melo Grant was frank in her criticism of the report.
“I felt like I was reading something from a high school kid,” Grant said, “who waited until the night before to read the book and write his report.”
After learning about the plagiarism, she doubled down on her critique. “High school,” she reiterated.
Progressive Councilor Jane Stromberg, Ward 8, said she was “livid” that the report lacked substance, and the plagiarism situation is “embarrassing” and “undefendable.”
“It is so inappropriate and such an undermining act,” Stromberg said. “It’s so unprofessional and hurtful and crazy.”
She wondered if the mayor’s office might be able to claw back part of the Dodson’s salary. Stromberg said the council should take disciplinary action, but is unsure what that should look like.
“It’s just such a horrible, horrible outcome,” Stromberg said. “And we got nothing from this. And it was very expensive.”
Progressive Councilor Zoraya Hightower, Ward 1, agrees with Stromberg that the council should take action. Hightower had worked with Dodson closely as chair of the joint public safety and Police Commission committee and had been unsupportive of the position when Weinberger first created it in the fall.
She had concerns with some of the language in the report that she said amounted to victim-blaming of people who have been hurt by police in the past. “Some of the parts I criticized the most … were actually plagiarized,” she said.
“I don’t know if I should be relieved that somebody in our community isn’t spewing this bullshit all on their own,” she said.
Hightower said Dodson’s poor work has set back police reforms. She, too, didn’t support his $75,000 salary.
Democratic Councilor Sarah Carpenter, Ward 4, at first defended Dodson, arguing that he shouldn’t bear all responsibility for the recommendations when the city is in the process of hiring consultants and producing assessments of the BPD.
Now that the plagiarism has been identified, she said she’s disappointed.
“I didn’t expect a full consultant’s report and recommendations,” Carpenter said. “But I assumed he would provide his observations in his own words and sentiments.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington police transformation director under fire for plagiarism.
